america is a force for good in the middle east. we need to acknowledge that truth. if we don't, we make bad choices. the choices we make have consequences for patients in millions and millions of people. for our safety, for our economic prosperity, for our personal freedoms, and those of our children. and there's no more appropriate place than where i'm standing today to have this discussion at the american university here in beautiful cairo. this year marks 100 years since the founding of this institution. the a.u.c. is more than just a university, it's an important symbol of america's friendship with egypt and what binds our people together. together we have created a modern place of learning in the midst of an ancient civilization with its own rich history of artists, poets, and intellectuals. egypt has always been a land of striving. and yet, times, your aspirations and those of your brothers in the middle east have seemed impossible to achieve. this lands witnessed convulsions as old systems crumbled and new ones struggled to emerge. that's happened here too. a

in the middle east outside. this is talk of american influence in the region surely not helped by this pullout of american troops from syria. you know i don't think there's a serious issue here is going to be a major problem for the united states are two thousand troops there trying to set up an independent or quasi independent kurdish state in the north of syria was going to be you know a fool's errand it wasn't going to work all the neighbors were against it they were just going to stick shift in a side of america and stay there. you know finding a new order in the middle east is going to be difficult for the united states because as you're you know your guest said that there are other powers that are very wealthy in the world now and you know russia has come back china is an emerging major power and all of that is taking on america as america becomes an independent oil company you know maybe the biggest export of oil or the biggest producer of oil i should say again many americans are wondering what are we sp

-middle east policy and future relations with iran. held at the university of cairo, this is half an hour. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, business leaders, civil society leaders, members of the media of egypt and international, students, colleagues of the american iversity in cairo, secretary mike pompeo, mrs. susan pompeo. welcome. it's a special and particular honor today to begin a.u.c.'s centennial year here in eyipt with the visit of a distinguished american leader bearing a message of global impact. we have served the citizens of egypt and the wider arab world as a beacon of american-based liberal arts education and a steppingstone for global engagement. at the same time we've served generations of the most adventuresome american scholars at the most welcoming portal to the heart of the american world. mr. secretarying your very american personal store roif public service inspires us all. as a descendant of imgants from this mediterranean region you competed for and woon entrance to the united states military academy yo

is essential to the cess of the middle east region alliance which we hope will include the g.c.c. egypt and jordan it was a rich short his hose that the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria will not jeopardize america's efforts against their own battle continues our presence decision to withdraw our folks from syria in no way impacts our capacity to deliver on that and you'll see in the coming days and weeks we are redoubling not only our diplomatic but our commercial efforts to put real pressure on iran to achieve what it is we set out for them back in may and these are simple asks we ask of the islamic republic of iraq to behave like a normal nation and the coalition is just as committed to it today as it was yesterday. all right let's bring in our guests now a joining me here on set is maggie down through a professor of political science at kut a university from norman in oklahoma via skype we have joshua landis director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma gentlemen thank you very much indeed for joining us josh if i could start with you there in

particularly in the middle east. he told you that the united states and the muslim world needed quote - a new beginning. the results of these misjudgments have been dire. and falsely seeing ourselves as a force for what ails the middle east, we were timid. in asserting ourselves when the time and our partners demanded it. we grossly underestimated the tenacity and viciousness of radical islamism, a strand of the faith that seems to -- other forms of worship or governance. america hesitated. they raped and pillaged and murdered tens of thousands of innocents. they birthed the caliphate across syria and iraq and launched terror attacks that killed all across continents. america's reluctance, to wield their influence kept us silent as the people ever ran rose up in the green revolution. the ayatollah and their henchmen murdered, jailed and intimidated freedom loving iranians.and they wrongly blamed america for this unrest when it was their own tyranny that had fueled it. and emboldened, the regime spread its influence t

america is a force for good in the middle east. .. . >> and at this critical call moment, america, your long time fred was absent too much. y-letter? because we misread our history and your historical moment. this set forth in this city in 2009 adversely affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people in egypt and all across the region so remember it was here in this city that he told you 9/11 to abandon its ideals in the middle east he told you the united states and the muslim world needed a newuo beginning and the result ofen these misjudgments has been dire and as a force to what ails the middle east when the time and our partners demanded. isis to the outskirts of baghdad as america hesitated they raped and pillaged and with the caliphate those terror attacks to kill all across the continents america's reluctance to wield our influence kept silence as the people of iran rose up in the green revolution. the ayatollahs that the henchman murdered iranians and they wrongly blamed america from their own tyranny to be emboldened is spread to yemen and iraq andq, syria and further int

period that does not strike people in the middle east as something of a humble engaging approach one thing that struck me was the scant mention of yemen it got one maybe even hoffa line on a page i mean that is extraordinary given that is one of the key issues in this region of our time absolutely and i mean to tell you how low is the bar of partly but yet many is should be very happy because palestine was not even mentioned what yes so you know you're likely to get mentioned have a sentence but yet but let's i mean let's let's keep it in context that the united states is the main provider of saudi military assistance aid and support in the war in yemen so the the united states is not an objective observer of the war of yemen it's an accomplice in the water of yemen it supports saudi arabia and it actually declares it on its boasts of it and there's no there's nothing there to hide so when they speak of yemen clearly after the murder of. and after the debacle of yemen and the united nations an international human rights organization spoke about that because yemen the u.s. had had

middle east, passionate about the role of lebanon in the middle east, passionate about the role of middle eastern liberty is what cardinal ryan mentioned one time is what he called the 11 of society. it was a calming influence in society. i know that you're passionate about that. what i'm here tonight to tell you more than anything else are two things. one, thank you. it means a great deal to more of us than you probably ever will know or we'll ever be able to thank you for. and number two, just to know that you are not alone. we are on the front lines, that we are dealing with these things in the middle east. when you're dealing with your family and you're dealing with your friends, know there are people you will never meet and you will never know who care about these things as well and are doing everything they can to help you. so thank you for having me tonight. [applause] >> i have a surprise award for my friend mick mulvaney. it wasn't a surprise. >> how am i going to get this home? goodness gracious. >> it's a piece of lebanon and it says solidarity dinner 2018 to director mick mulv

policy in support of the christians in the middle east. ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, our next speaker needs no introduction to this gathering. a man of principle and of high intellect with whom i had-- i have had the privilege of meeting in the past. the honorable mick mulvaney is the current director of the office of management and budget, omb, a key position in the trump administration. prior to his time as director for omb he served the people of the 5th district of south carolina as their congressman. he has been a friend and advocate for middle eastern christians for years and meeting with the maronite patriarch in 2014. meeting the syria orthodox patriarch in 2015 and working with members of congress to pass resolutions to recognize the genocide christians in iraq and syria. [applaus [applause] >> mick and his wife pam are the proud parents of triplets, james, caroline and finnigan and also garrett and harper. please give a warm welcome to mick mulvaney. [applause] >> thank you very much. people always ask me about the dogs

for the whole region of the middle east we see the. way they're all very high we watch each quarter as well there's a big share of the sports if you say yes so a big increase in a cave or i.c.u. for surgery which allows more people to watch shows like a victory and we do we take all points of it off like that where so you need to have like big data bubbles or very good connections you've proven there will really open up this phase of the population of the middle east is young analyst estimates that there are eighty million potential gamers and many players speak the same language and share a culture which crosses regional borders so they can connect very easily the sports organizations are being set up in many countries in saudi arabia they even get state funding. abdulaziz al shehri wants to promote e-sports to the games come congress last summer he talked about his experience and the gaming scene in the middle east they treat me like a role model you know they they see something like ok we really want to be like at the desis one day

sector state might pump a has been touring the middle east to try and win support and put pressure on iran he's pushing for an arab military alliance to counter threats from tehran the aim would be to curb iran's influence in the region from yemen to syria lebanon and iraq impose visits included eight arab countries jordan iraq egypt bahrain u.a.e. qatar saudi arabia and mon and he had this warning the nations of the middle east will never enjoy security achieve economic stability or advance the dreams of their people of iran's revolutionary regime persists on its current course america's economic sanctions against the regime are the strongest in history and will keep getting tougher until iran starts behaving like a normal country well pump as said the arab coalition would include g.c.c. countries as well as egypt and jordan but he raise concerns that the rift between four of the countries and kata would affect the alliance is effectiveness and he called for an end to the dispute. today in our conversations i stressed the importance of unity among the gulf cooperation council members

e-sports in the middle east a huge market and a great opportunity for young people. shift says let's say. now for a network. digital shake is ad makers and their projects today coding ambassador carly cos. she is one of the world's top models and not just a pretty face karlie kloss wants to do more than look fabulous she has studied coding and thinks more girls should possess skills like this. women today represent only eighteen percent of all computer science graduates it's not enough over the past couple of years i started taking coding classes and realized how creative coding truly is it's opened my eyes to how things work. karlie kloss has launched a program called code with classy girls aged between thirteen and eighteen can apply for summer camp in one of twenty five u.s. cities they learn how to code and develop their own apps in the two we course h.t.m.l. c.s.s. ruby and java script are included in the program. my hope is that we can prepare for the future by increasing access to keen learning opportunities for women and girls to challenge themselves and disc

middle east eddies at the university of oklahoma are right gentlemen. rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate joshua let me go to you first in norman i have a very simple question but i don't think there's a simple answer is foreign policy is befuddling. frustrating to understand and it seems quite fluid so what do you make of his policy as his major foreign policy advisers including the us secretary of state is essentially contradicting their boss on their middle east tour go ahead joshua. well you're absolutely right and for americans it's just as confusing as it is for the rest of the world because the foreign policy. elite really has come undone and the way this this process is hammered out has now been thrown into some chaos because the president has taken charge of the syrian issue himself and then started in december fourteenth when the turks escalated they threatened to invade and were bombarding northern syria this forced an escalation beyond the sort of the top state department the national security

what is washington's policy strategy in the middle east because if you are a leader in the middle east or even if you are a citizen of the middle east you don't know what exactly is washington's strategy at one point president obama told everyone iran is fine less engaged it we signed a nuclear deal with it come on board support the nuclear deal let's make sure that iran is contained and so on so forth now we have president trump saying iran is an indian number one the nuclear deal of the script we're going to reopen everything whether you want because it's the worst possible human in the middle east that certainly confuses people and then they're stop saying one thing in the beginning and then saying something else the worse the end so there's this for flopping with and truong and there is the confusion between what tom says and what some of his lieutenants have said for example just two days before the special envoy to syria quit he said we're staying there on the lawn in the for the long haul and then two days later but it's been trump said would leaving in thirty days to one. and s

this i tell you everything we need to know about john bolton in the middle east. well you know it's not only that but john bolton had been. before he got his present job he was he was lobbying for regime change in iraq he was talking to me rejean change in iran excuse me was he was talking to figure ryan groups the united states and saying that he was all in favor of regime change in iran so he has a very aggressively anti iranian and which i presume is part of the reason that he was brought to the top of the pick for president trump so president trump is sitting on a very anti iranian foreign policy crowd and we say that from pompei when his speech in cairo is you you explained in your opening which was really a love letter to saudi arabia. exactly eliminate all the problems in the middle east on iran and this is of course a the anti obama policy in some ways but it's also it puts the united states. in a very small and it's a camp that's very divided because the gulf arabs and israel which of course america is trying to bring the two together to face off against

one of the reasons i'm in the middle east is to work against terror. border security is a important component. >> brennan: is the state department wrong to say this is not how terrorists are trying to enter the united states. >> margaret, terrorists try to enter our county many ways. what you saw was a unclassified report. terrorists will always find a weakest leak. we need to make sure that's not the southern border. >> brennan: i want to get to your trip through the middle east. first i want to ask you about the new york times report that says after president trump fired james comey the fbi began to investigate w p hself a threat to security andr unintension alley influenced by moscow. what is your reaction to this? >> i won't comment on new york times stories. i will say this, the notion that president trump is a threat to national security is ludicrous. >> brennan: to clarify. you were cia director, did you have any idea this investigation was happening. >> margaret, margaret. i have answered this question repeatedly indeed on your show. the idea c

middle east follows confusion about donald trump's withdrawal of a round two thousand u.s. troops from northern syria the president's announcement schult arab allies as well as u.s. political leaders and military commanders concerned that the battle against eisel in syria and the wider region is not over yet pompei out try to reassure them president trump has made the decision to bring our troops home from syria we always do and now is the time but this isn't a change of mission we were made committed to the complete dismantling of isis the isis threat and the ongoing fight against radical islamism in all of its forms. the u.s. withdrawal from syria is also having ramifications for american relations with nato ally turkey u.s. troops have been working with kurdish y.p. chief i choose who control a large area of northern syria close to the turkish border turkey considers the y.p. g a terrorist organization president received type order one said the suggestion on choose day by u.s. national security adviser john bolton but protecting the white p.g. as a precondition to the u.

really wants to be in the middle east whether what we're seeing now is the new normal. as theust put that out kind of reality that you get when you are in the region. withudi arabia itself, and the saudi's i spoke to both prior to being there and then when i got there, right now is a kind of interesting mood. initially when i was first seeing saudi's in the emirates, they were quite shaken by the effect of khashoggi, the international reaction to it, there was desire to sort of get out from under this, there was a thatng of great discomfort as one person said to me, we have not felt this was in 9/11. they really wanted to get over it. three weeks later when i went to saudi arabia, i found it was really different and it was much more, i would say, reflective of a kind of anger. one of the things i think you have to recognize is, mohammad bin salman has been seeking to replace wahhabism with a different form of legitimacy. legitimacy pillar of is not just modernization but nationalism. and when you make nationalism the form of identity, when the outside world seems to be

we cannot allow the creation of a power vacuum in the middle east to bolster our adversaries influence in the region. and that's precisely what this legislation addresses. the strengthening american security in the east act to incorporate four bipartisan noncontroversial bills that were newly enacted last year, but the clock on the 115th congress ran out on december 31. as we begin what hope will be another productive year in the senate, i'm glad we will have a chance to vote on this legislation. our national interests demand that we fully support and interest the security of israel, our closest ally in the region. as a majority leader said last week, this bill affirms that the u.s. needs to do more than just talk the talk. we must also walk the walk to support israel's security. this legislation will help israel maintain a qualitative military edge against ongoing threats by authorizing military assistance and allowing the transfer of equipment and defensive weapons. importantly, we will also assist israel and in counting the threat of unmanned aerial vehicles deployed by iran in part

even across the middle east even among the supposed u.s. allies and we're talking about the gulf dictatorships here saudi arabia qatar bahrain u.a.e. qatar. kuwait. they were embarrassed by this they were unfounded and in. salted by this speech and i mean there's just so many. when he said at one point that in world war two american g. our eyes. were there to free north america. we assume you meant north africa from nazi germany would russia and china come to your rescue well well russia and china of course for in world war two and it was russia that the feet of nazi germany in berlin. interestingly enough. the american media doesn't like to talk about it certainly my pump ale doesn't like to talk about it but there is a peace process going on to finally resolve the issues in syria and it's being led by russia. doesn't realize or doesn't want to recognize it go ahead. and this process is pretty successful because basically they consider commission is walking most likely there will be negotiations in geneva or the fight in syria is now much

the trip to the middle east. security of state.ompeo, and he went to mobilise the arabs in the gulf states, egypt and jordan, to establish an arab nato to confront iran. this is one thing. the second thing — he called for middle east peace and security conference in warsaw, poland. so, he created problems on both sides because many people in the middle east, the six gulf countries, they are divided. three of them would like to join trump in his adventure against iran. the three others are reluctant, egypt are also reluctant to do so. the other worrying point — he said we are moving now from containing iran, the containment of iran, to actually attacking iran. so, what he means is — because john bolton, the national security adviser, he wanted a regime change in iran. are they capable to do so? i don't know. so, he created problems on both sides because many people in the middle east, the six gulf countries, they are divided. three of them would like to join trump in his adventure against iran. the three others are reluctant, egypt

this is what the people of the middle east want. they want to have hope, collective hope for all to be able to live in a safe and secure environment with additional hope for prosperity, that we all can live side-by- side in peace regardless of and in spite of differences, in ideology and religion and etc.. that is where i am coming from. we in the gcc, we have really underwent the programs for interdependence. we started, and this is really an hour charter, that we would work together as six nations, cooperate, and be interdependent, eve alvey, and eve alvey to our unification. it is at the heart of our charter, but we look at the situation in the other countries, and the turmoil that the middle east is going through, we are proposing that there are two lessons that we can learn from. europe, and the gcc. the gcc has shown it can be done. over the last 37 years, we have evolved, and integration in all fields. you talk about the error avenue nato, we do have the gcc, and we have it literally, and we have a unified control, and we are

is not a weakened force in the middle east now of course there is a lot of truth to that because as i said moments ago the american objects in syria has been a defeat states and has been defeated in large measure because of the russia but at the same time since mr trump became president of course america's ties to its two most crucial allies in that region israel and saudi arabia have been enhanced greatly let us not yet trump has now recognized jerusalem as israel's capital and of course trump assigns defense contracts for saudi arabia to the chair not something like five hundred billion or six hundred billion dollars so yes it's a strange states because we all know all people want this planet at least know that america is a great force for destruction and instability in the middle east but. i think because the americans have been defeated in syria they need to reassure their allies and also as she said i do fear very well because i believe we have trouble in office and this represents an opportunity in a lot of the recent efforts to want to overthrow the iranian government's an

could we see, then, not a better middle east, but a more stable middle east? i think we will.going back to the arab rank again, there will be a revision of certain policies which guided to this mess, now this is the end of the arab spring. but it is at the price of russia running the show. why not? america is abandoning... we had a lot of problems with america. we had wars. bari, i can remember doing this programme with you when we were both extremely critical, when 0bama decided his red lines can be crossed and so what? he wasn't going to do anything about it. that was considered to be absolutely immoral and one of the consequences was he was abandoning the middle east to russian influence. that is not healthy. it is healthy. it was americans there, the americans controlled this area for the last 50 years. and what did we have in the middle east? war in iraq, libya and syria. listen to me just one minute. what president trump said, when we had saddam hussein, when we had gaddafi, we had a more stable middle east. that's not what he said at the time. he said it. he changes his

president, four years america's vital interests in the middle east have been jeopardized by regional chaos. the security of our our ally il continues to be challenged by the long reach of the iranian regime and its affiliates. in syria the assad regime has made its own nation a graveyard for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians here and the resulting chaos continues to provide iran and russia opportunity to expand their maligned influence throughout the region. that's why the senate is going to vote later today to take up pressing legislation that tackles all of this had on. the bill building and would rem the united states commitment too israel's security and authorized military assistance, cooperative missile defense and loan guarantees. that would counter an aggressive and hostile attempt to delegitimize the state of israel through economic boycotts. it would also reauthorize efforts to strengthen defense cooperation with our ally jordan, as its people and government grapple with the security and humanitarian ramifications of the syrian crisis. and importantly the legislati

what they left in the middle east's is debatable. you already left a number of large castles and structures. which in their turn influenced. the local architecture. culturally i believe that the muslims had a far greater effect on. europe than europe had on the middle east. i mean they had me and there was. no mother and the dialect that i want to loosely mean length and found photographer as i do for that main sentimentalist a shock but we thought going to carry much any are awful to be will and that's due . to we're not. we're not careful seven hours to. the roosevelt island alchemy as he says feel that it will be a can it be day. and then again oh you don't need a little. bit of the cold war this is about a lot of it isn't. it her also missed a lot of it you know her child making sense. and i'm an atheist and feeling ill mussarat let you all fall you know do and you know washington. and she does with somebody and distances little for korean is that fusion to us carry at. the heart of the saline level. and for good to know it's yes

in general what is this middle east asserted you call lions and who does it involve with a crisis in israel palestine and the peace process going nowhere with the crisis in the gulf and that issue is going nowhere and with trump's policy in the middle east being so dis mold that aside from look at the rising jerusalem as the state of the jewish state court unquote which is actually very counterproductive that turned out in the arab and muslim world there's very little to show and certainly we didn't hear anything anything from either secular pompei or john bolton not yesterday or not today that further clarified what it is that the grand strategy whether it's against their.

we haven't heard from much, but jared kushner was going to bring peace to the middle east.s going to -- he was going to present a peace plan, palestinians, israelis, this is something that they had talked about privately for a long time. where is it? >> well, it's actually an interesting contrast between obama's speech ten years ago in which he promised that he would make a major effort to resolve the israeli/palestinian conflict and spent a good third of his speech on that subject, and the one sentence that secretary of state pompeo referred to this as something the united states was going to try to do. the plan itself has been delayed yet again. we are now past the two-year mark and it's now delayed because of the israeli elections which will take place in april, it will take at least two months for the israeli coalition government to be formed after that. we're getting into june. at that point we're already in the election season here. i doubt that evangelicals are going to be very supportive of a plan that should it require any kind of territorial concession from the is

. >> we examine the trump administration's middle east policy with a terrific panel. >>> but first the president threatens to declare a national emergency if the democrats don't fund his wall. we will look at the history of such declarations and the awesome powers they give the commander in chief. >>> and bring back our girls, remember the intense anger over the kidnapping of almost 300 nigerian school girls? >> bring back our girls. >> remember the feverish demands to get them back? well, some 100 of those girls are still missing. we have not forgotten. >>> but first here is my take. watching the struggle over funding for a border wall i'm struck by the way in which in one sense donald trump has already achieved success. he has been able to conjure up a crisis out of thin air, elevate this manufactured emergency to national attention, paralyze the government and perhaps now even invoke war-like authority and bypass congress. he may still fail, but it should worry us that a president, any president, can do what trump has done. let's be clear, there is no crisis. the number of undocumen

iraq the latest stop on his middle east tour he's reassuring washington's allies about trump's plan to withdraw troops from syria stuff. from the jordanian capital of amman. so the message from the u.s. secretary of state might pump aoe is clear that the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria will not hinder its fight against eisel and it will also not affect its fight to. contain iran's influence in the region there was a press conference between the sec's your state mr damion counterpart touching on the issue of syria that both sides want to see a political solution to it also touching on the issue of iran and also briefly mentioning the israel palestinian conflict and certainly the jordanians saying that they saw this as a key issue that needed to be resolved when it came to conflict in the middle east now where the sect of state will be heading on to egypt where he's expected to give a keynote speech interestingly that will come ten years to the time when the former president barack obama gave his middle eastern speech but the message from the americans is that despite this pullout i

hello there there's still plenty of cloud across the middle east at the moment that the satellite picture is showing plenty in the south and then another system in the east is this one that's giving us the more intense rain and a lot of snow as well as there from afghanistan northwards really we're seeing a lot of snowy weather here we're also seeing another weather system making its way into parts of turkey that's going to stay around the western part as we head through the day on saturday then it will be pulling itself together to swing towards lebanon and syria as we head through sunday and into monday a bit further towards the south and here in doha it suddenly go to bit cooler the winds are firing down from the northwest bringing in that chilly air so friday and saturday well a top temperature of around twenty two degrees could be a fair amount of cloud around on saturday too the winds will finally ease the during the day on saturday and as we head into sunday down towards the southern parts of africa and for many of us here there's quite a few showers around currently you can see th

military base in the middle east dade near the capital doha is home to the forward operating base of u.s. central command. and then we have discussed all the issues of interest for our country's regional issues starting with the gulf cooperation council and the peace process in the middle east as well as the reconsolidation in afghanistan as well as other issues such as syria and counter-terrorism. landed in qatar from the united arab emirates after visiting egyptian and behave in his flying to sandy arabia which have all imposed their eighteen month long land and sea blockade on qatar the accused the title funding extremism allegations strongly dismissed by a qatari leader as america's top diplomat has also visited jordan and is due in a man and kuwait on his middle east tour it's being seen as an attempt to rally support among key players in the region to counterbalance the growing influence of iran and i don't think that the administration plans for dealing with iran by virtue of trying to organize a larger coalition are going to work simply because most states do not agree with u